CIUDAD to - the Catholic Kingdom!

INTRODUCTION 15
Such is the state which I require of thee, and so high
is the wisdom, which I am to teach thee in following
my footsteps and in imitating my life, reproducing in
thyself, as far as is granted thee, all my virtues. This
should be the fruit of recording the wonders and sac
raments of my sanctity manifested to thee by the Lord.
I wish that they escape not the secrecy of thy bosom
and be made known without having moved thee to
the perfect fulfillment of the will of my divine Son
and of mine, which tends to nothing else than toward
thy own highest perfection. Drink then the waters
of wisdom from their fountainhead, the Savior: there
is no reason why thou shouldst remain void and unsatiated
of that, which thou art to administer to others,
nor that thou shouldst finish writing this history with
out deriving the fruits of this blessing. Prepare thy
heart then for this death, which I urge upon thee,
and thou shalt attain thy wishes and mine."
14. Such were the words of the great Lady of heaven
to me on this occasion, and on many others She has
repeated this teaching of the salutary and eternal life.
Of these teachings I have written much in the chap
ters of the first and second part, and shall continue to
do so in the third part. From all this my sluggish
ness and ingratitude toward such great benefits is very
apparent. For, though this great Queen and her divine
Son have so often promised to raise me to a most
exalted state and habitation, once I die to the earth
and to myself, and though in their divine kindness They
now promise it freely and anew; yet I find myself con
tinually backward in virtue and much entangled in
the pursuits of a daughter of Adam. This state is a
solitude and desert, created for the soul in the midst
of the surrounding creatures. In it my soul has no
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